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I love the blog Forever Young Adult, mostly because it's one of the YA book blogs that I've been following that's updated on a consistent basis. A few days ago they posted a list of things they (and the blog's readers) would like to see more of in YA lit.
I got in on the action, mentioning that I wished that there were more protagonists who weren't despairing over their lack of development, because I couldn't relate to that at all. I remember reading books where characters were fascinated by their best friends getting training bras and starting their periods and being like, "Why?" I was an early bloomer, and I remember feeling intensely awkward about wearing a bra long before every other girl I knew did. I joke that I knew the day my childhood was over was when I realized that I could no longer hang upside down on the monkey bars (because that meant my shirt would flip down, revealing my bra-wearing status), and yeah. There are tons of girls in books who I could relate to on personality levels and stuff, but I could never understand why Mia Thermopolis and Jessica Darling angsted over their bra sizes.
About the only character that I can remember reading in a book that had that issue was from... geez, this series of books from the late 80s. The two I read when I was younger were 2 Young 2 Go 4 Boys and We Hate Everything But Boys, both by Linda Lewis. One of the main character's best friends was a red-haired girl named Darlene, who was taller than everyone in fifth grade and was already wearing (and filling out) a bra. In the second book there was a scene when Darlene and Linda (the protagonist) were at a baseball game and a skeevy older boy comes over and starts making lewd comments about Darlene. I think the reason why I kept those two books (which I dug out of my box of books in our garage that I FINALLY found after like three years) is because I could relate so strongly to that feeling: feeling weird because you were physically more mature than your classmates and because some of them found that to be kind of scary or weird, and because you looked older than your age, having to endure the advances of sketchy older guys.
With that said, other things I'd love to see more of in young adult books: camp stories (I AM STILL BITTER THAT I NEVER GOT TO GO TO CAMP, OKAY. I blame Bug Juice and Salute Your Shorts and the Camp Mohawk Baby Sitters Club Super Special for that), stories about writing for/creating the newspaper and yearbook (but that could just be because I had the most fun in school once I got into yearbook and photojournalism), student government (I love the trope of absurdly powerful StuCo) and more epic pranks (see: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks). This is why I need to write my book finally. So many ideas, so little time.
Other things: I saw Easy A on Friday and giggled like an idiot the entire time. Emma Stone is excellent in it--also, I really love her speaking voice. Olive's mom in the movie reminded me so much of my friend Tiffany's mom at some point, and it was just distracting to see Cam Gidagent, because I was like, "James? Why are you here? Aren't you supposed to have a nice case of dead?"
TWO MORE WEEKS 'TIL I SEE SARA BAREILLES!!! Front row, even! I AM NOT LYING.
Finally saw the latest episode of The Vampire Diaries. Seriously, I did not expect this show to be half as good as it is, but I am SO GLAD it surpassed my expectations. I am kind of gleeful about ( the latest thing that went down. )
And finally, I leave you with ( something to think about. )
I got in on the action, mentioning that I wished that there were more protagonists who weren't despairing over their lack of development, because I couldn't relate to that at all. I remember reading books where characters were fascinated by their best friends getting training bras and starting their periods and being like, "Why?" I was an early bloomer, and I remember feeling intensely awkward about wearing a bra long before every other girl I knew did. I joke that I knew the day my childhood was over was when I realized that I could no longer hang upside down on the monkey bars (because that meant my shirt would flip down, revealing my bra-wearing status), and yeah. There are tons of girls in books who I could relate to on personality levels and stuff, but I could never understand why Mia Thermopolis and Jessica Darling angsted over their bra sizes.
About the only character that I can remember reading in a book that had that issue was from... geez, this series of books from the late 80s. The two I read when I was younger were 2 Young 2 Go 4 Boys and We Hate Everything But Boys, both by Linda Lewis. One of the main character's best friends was a red-haired girl named Darlene, who was taller than everyone in fifth grade and was already wearing (and filling out) a bra. In the second book there was a scene when Darlene and Linda (the protagonist) were at a baseball game and a skeevy older boy comes over and starts making lewd comments about Darlene. I think the reason why I kept those two books (which I dug out of my box of books in our garage that I FINALLY found after like three years) is because I could relate so strongly to that feeling: feeling weird because you were physically more mature than your classmates and because some of them found that to be kind of scary or weird, and because you looked older than your age, having to endure the advances of sketchy older guys.
With that said, other things I'd love to see more of in young adult books: camp stories (I AM STILL BITTER THAT I NEVER GOT TO GO TO CAMP, OKAY. I blame Bug Juice and Salute Your Shorts and the Camp Mohawk Baby Sitters Club Super Special for that), stories about writing for/creating the newspaper and yearbook (but that could just be because I had the most fun in school once I got into yearbook and photojournalism), student government (I love the trope of absurdly powerful StuCo) and more epic pranks (see: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks). This is why I need to write my book finally. So many ideas, so little time.
Other things: I saw Easy A on Friday and giggled like an idiot the entire time. Emma Stone is excellent in it--also, I really love her speaking voice. Olive's mom in the movie reminded me so much of my friend Tiffany's mom at some point, and it was just distracting to see Cam Gidagent, because I was like, "James? Why are you here? Aren't you supposed to have a nice case of dead?"
TWO MORE WEEKS 'TIL I SEE SARA BAREILLES!!! Front row, even! I AM NOT LYING.
Finally saw the latest episode of The Vampire Diaries. Seriously, I did not expect this show to be half as good as it is, but I am SO GLAD it surpassed my expectations. I am kind of gleeful about ( the latest thing that went down. )
And finally, I leave you with ( something to think about. )
